[CCoE Notice] MS Thesis Defense

[Khator, Suresh]

Master's Defense
COAXING GRAPHENE TO BE PIEZOELECTRIC

Swapnil Chandratre

Thursday, 11/17/2011 at 10:00 am, W232, Multi-Scale Modeling and Simulations Laboratory

Committee Members: Pradeep Sharma - Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Liping Liu - Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Gemunu Gunaratne- Professor, Physics


Several exotic characteristics and properties have made graphene a much studied material from both basic science viewpoint as well as tantalizing applications ranging from nanoelectronics, gas separation membranes to ultracapacitors. Graphene, however, is non-piezoelectric. This is obvious when graphene is in its metallic or semi-metallic state. However, even when graphene is in its dielectric form, which can be engineered through porosity or by using nanoribbons, graphene is non-piezoelectric due to its centrosymmetric crystal structure. Using quantum mechanical calculations we show that merely by creating holes of right symmetry will coax graphene to act as a piezoelectric. We find that certain specifically tailored porous graphene sheets can "acquire" piezoelectricity coefficients that are nearly 72% of the well known piezoelectric (Quartz) or 36% of boron nitride nanotubes. We shed insights on exploring the non linear piezoelectric response when cases of high strain are introduced.
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